Three killed, including a child, after car mows down pedestrians in Melbourne

Three people have been killed, including a young child, and at least 15 injured after a car drove into pedestrians in Bourke Street, one of the busiest areas in Melbourne’s central business district.

Victoria police confirmed on Friday afternoon the victims were a young child and a man and a woman, both in their 30s. None of the dead were believed to be related.

Victorian police commissioner Graham Ashton said the death toll could rise, as five of the injured were listed as critical, including a child whose pram could be seen lying on the road amid the carnage.

The Royal Children’s hospital said earlier it was treating five casualties, including a two-year-old who was in intensive care and a three-month-old who was undergoing an operation. Figures released by several other Melbourne hospitals put the total number of injured at 25, but in an afternoon media conference Ashton said he knew of 15 injured.

A 26-year-old man was taken into custody with non life-threatening injuries after police rammed his car and fired several shots. Police said the events had no connection with terrorism and the suspect, who was well known to them, had mental health and drug issues.

The chaos began when the man, driving a maroon Commodore, stopped traffic by doing burnouts outside Flinders Street station about 1.30pm local time. He then drove up Swanston Street, turned left down Bourke Street mall and began mowing down pedestrians, police said.

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The car believed to have been driven at speed through central Melbourne, causing at least three deaths. Photograph: Julian Smith/EPA

The former Victorian police chief commissioner Christine Nixon was crossing the road when the car raced by and had to step out of the way. Nixon said she saw a pram on the ground and helped the mother.

“She kept asking me ‘where’s the baby’,” Nixon told ABC radio.

A witness, Hank Kerr, told Guardian Australia he had seen people jumping out of the way but there were also people being hit and thrown to one side. “All we could see was just the car and carnage – people were flying everywhere.”

Kerr said the car had mounted the footpath and kept driving up Bourke Street through crowds of pedestrians.

Another witness, who did not wish to be named, said he was walking from the post office towards the Bourke and Elizabeth street intersection when he heard a car “screaming down” the Bourke Street mall at high speed, which is for pedestrians and trams only.

“Because it was so loud I looked up and I saw one person bounce off the windscreen of the car before it disappeared down Bourke Street towards Spencer Street, and police cars were following it and a helicopter chasing it,” he told Guardian Australia.

“I could see at least two groups of injured people. I saw someone lying on the ground near the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth and then someone else down near Bourke Street.”

According to another, Meg Watson, the car mounted the kerb “at pace” and struck pedestrians.

Witnesses reported hearing at least five gunshots before the man was arrested.

“There’s someone on the middle of the ground and there’s blood all over the street,” shopkeeper Rishi Hathiramani told Australian Associated Press. “It’s pretty brutal.”

A number of businesses went into lockdown, while others were evacuated.

“A heap of people ran into my store, it was horrible. Half of my staff are in tears,” a Strandbags manager told AAP.

City office worker William Mulholland said he came out of a laneway and saw a number of bodies lying on the pavement receiving CPR from police and emergency workers.

He said his friend came out of the RACV building on Bourke Street and saw a body lying on the pavement in front of him.

One witness told ABC radio he saw the car travelling along the footpath.

“It was a maroon Commodore travelling easily 70km/h on the footpath. We heard thumps and there was people flying everywhere,” he said.

Police later recounted a chain of events that began with an alleged stabbing in the suburb of Windsor about 2am. At 11.45am, police alleged, the same man was seen driving erratically and had a woman, who may have been a hostage, in his car. She managed to escape on the Bolte Bridge, west of the city centre, they said. They did not believe the woman had any previous connection with the suspect.

Speaking at the same media conference, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, paid tribute to the emergency services and said Victorians’ hearts were breaking at the news of the deaths.

He also thanked members of the public who had provided assistance to the injured.

“Every minute these last couple of hours we have heard more and more stories coming out of just ordinary Victorians coming to the aid of their fellow Victorians,” Andrews said. “Reaching out, helping, providing assistance, doing the right thing. That does them great credit and it makes me and it makes all of us very proud to be citizens of this great state.”

Andrews said there was no further threat to the public, and he said the state would overcome the horror of the day.

“But we are stronger than this. We, through our response, through the work of our emergency services, the work that the instinctive way in which Victorians have reached out to support each other, we can be confident that we are stronger than this evil criminal act.”

The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said in a statement the prayers of all Australians were with the victims and their families.

He thanked the police and emergency workers, “joined by bystanders who, mindless of their own danger, sought to help those who had been attacked in this shocking crime”.

“Their love, their selflessness, their courage is the very best of our Australian spirit,” he said.